Telerrehabilitación en fisioterapia neurológica para la función motora del miembro superior en personas adultas tras accidente cerebrovascular: revisión sistemática

Introduction

Stroke is one of the leading causes of disability and mortality worldwide, and telerehabilitation has emerged as an innovative alternative to improve access to and continuity of physiotherapy services.

Objective

To analyze the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of telerehabilitation for upper limb motor recovery in stroke patients.

Materials and methods

A systematic review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Medline, Cochrane Library and PEDro were searched up to January 2025. Methodological quality was assessed using the PEDro scale, and risk of bias was evaluated with the Cochrane tool. A descriptive approach was applied to analyze the results, reporting means and standard deviations, and considering P < .05 reported by the original authors as statistically significant.

Results

Out of 183 initial records, 9 randomized clinical trials were included (400 participants, mean age 57 years). Methodological quality was rated as «good» in most studies. Telerehabilitation interventions consisted of an average of 5 sessions per week over 8 weeks. The findings indicate that telerehabilitation is at least as effective as face-to-face rehabilitation in improving upper limb motor function, with high patient adherence and satisfaction. However, only three studies reported statistically significant differences (P < .05) in favor of telerehabilitation.

Conclusions

These results suggest that telerehabilitation can be incorporated into routine neurological physiotherapy practice to enhance access to and continuity of post-stroke motor rehabilitation.